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Saturday March 24, 2012 5:22 AM

Wendy’s Co. is changing the way it treats chickens and pigs used in its food in an effort to be
more humane.

The Dublin-based fast-food company’s animal-welfare council said yesterday that one of its
chicken suppliers, O.K. Foods Inc. of Fort Smith, Ark., has started using a
low-atmospheric-pressure system that renders the chickens unconscious before the birds are handled
by plant workers.

The process is criticized by some animal-welfare groups but replaces the industry standard
practice of stunning chickens with electricity.

Wendy’s said it is the first quick-service restaurant chain to back the system, and urged other
chicken producers to embrace the practice.

The company did not disclose what percentage of its chicken comes from O.K. Foods.

“We just think it’s a more humane way to go, a superior alternative to conventional electrical
stunning,” Wendy’s spokesman Bob Bertini said.

The move is part of an ongoing trend, “not just in animal welfare but in corporate
responsibility,” said Darren Tristano, executive vice president of Technomic, a Chicago restaurant-
and food-research group. “Many major chains are re-evaluating the way animals are treated in the
food-service supply chain.”

By treating animals better, restaurants give consumers a better feeling about their meals,
Tristano said. “We’re still putting them in our mouth, but we care how it gets there.”

The downside: “It very likely will increase the price of products.”

Wendy’s also said that it is working with its U.S. and Canadian pork suppliers to eliminate the
use of sow-gestation stalls over time. Animal-rights groups say the individual stalls are inhumane,
but pork producers say the larger stalls increase labor and food costs.

However, several major pork producers have agreed to phase out gestation crates.

Major pork buyer McDonald’s Corp. announced in February that it would phase out crates that
tightly confine pregnant sows in a move that was predicted to be a major shift for the
industry.

“I don’t think it’s something that is trendy in the sense that it comes and (goes),” said
restaurant broker Randy Sokol of Sokol & Associates. “It’s a way of life now, something that we
Americans want.”

Wendy’s has been working toward eliminating the use of the gestation stalls since 2007, Bertini
said. “Our suppliers have been making progress in that area, and we felt it important that all of
our suppliers now move in that direction.”

The upgrades are part of continuing efforts by Wendy’s animal-welfare council, which has been in
place since 2001, Bertini said. “A major part of the program has been the auditing process of our
beef, poultry and pork suppliers throughout the U.S. and Canada, up to two times a year. If
suppliers do not meet our standards, they are terminated.”

Although Bertini did not know how many suppliers have been dropped, “it has taken place over the
last 11 years. They’re very stringent standards and cover all areas of treatment.”

Wendy’s, the second-largest burger chain in the U.S., operates more than 6,500 restaurants
around the globe. The company is trying to rejuvenate its image as a higher-end fast-food chain by
updating stores, revamping its menu and making other efforts to reinvent itself after a failed
merger with the Arby’s chain.